Molecular mechanisms

Harrison's Internal Medicine Chapter 114. Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Pathogenesis
Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Pathogenesis: Introduction
Over the past three decades, molecular studies of the pathogenesis of microorganisms have yielded an explosion of information about the various microbial and host molecules that contribute to the processes of infection and disease.

(BQ) Part 2 book "A guide to molecular mechanics and quantum chemical calculations" has contents: Dealing with flexible molecules; obtaining and using transition state geometries; obtaining and interpreting atomic charges; obtaining and interpreting atomic charges,...and other contents.

Over the last three decades, knowledge on the molecular biology of human cancers has vastly expanded. A host of genes and proteins involved in cancer development and progression have been defined and many mechanisms at the molecular, cellular and even tissue level have been, at least partly, elucidated. Insights have also been gained into the molecular mechanisms underlying carcinogenesis by chemical, physical, and biological agents and into inherited susceptibility to cancer. Accordingly, Part I of the book presents many of the molecules and mechanisms generally important in human cancers.

Numerous virus–target cell interactions have been described, and it is now clear that different viruses can use similar host-cell receptors for entry. The list of certain and likely host receptors for viral pathogens is long. Among the host membrane components that can serve as receptors for viruses are sialic acids, gangliosides, glycosaminoglycans, integrins and other members of the immunoglobulin superfamily, histocompatibility antigens, and regulators and receptors for complement components.

Encounters with Epithelial Cells
Over the past decade, many bacterial pathogens have been shown to enter epithelial cells (Fig. 114-2); the bacteria often use specialized surface structures that bind to receptors, with consequent internalization. However, the exact role and the importance of this process in infection and disease are not well defined for most of these pathogens. Bacterial entry into host epithelial cells is seen as a means for dissemination to adjacent or deeper tissues or as a route to sanctuary to avoid ingestion and killing by professional phagocytes.

GPI-anchored receptors do not have intracellular signaling domains. Instead, the mammalian Toll-like receptors (TLRs) transduce signals for cellular activation due to LPS binding. It has recently been shown that binding of microbial factors to TLRs to activate signal transduction occurs not on the cell surface, but rather in the phagosome of cells that have internalized the microbe. This interaction is probably due to the release of the microbial surface factor from the cell in the environment of the phagosome, where the liberated factor can bind to its cognate TLRs.

Senescence is a biological process that causes a progressive deterioration of structure and function of all organs chronologically. Recent studies have revealed the detailed molecular mechanisms of senescence using cell culture system and experimental organisms. It is thought that senescence is a potential cause for the development of various age-related disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders.

Viral Adhesins
(See also Chap. 161) All viral pathogens must bind to host cells, enter them, and replicate within them. Viral coat proteins serve as the ligands for cellular entry, and more than one ligand-receptor interaction may be needed; for example, HIV uses its envelope glycoprotein (gp) 120 to enter host cells by binding to both CD4 and one of two receptors for chemokines (designated CCR5 and CXCR4). Similarly, the measles virus H glycoprotein binds to both CD46 and the membrane-organizing protein moesin on host cells.

Encounters with Phagocytes
Phagocytosis and Inflammation Phagocytosis of microbes is a major innate host defense that limits the growth and spread of pathogens. Phagocytes appear rapidly at sites of infection in conjunction with the initiation of inflammation. Ingestion of microbes by both tissue-fixed macrophages and migrating phagocytes probably accounts for the limited ability of most microbial agents to cause disease.

Invasion
Many diseases are caused primarily by pathogens growing in tissue sites that are normally sterile. Pneumococcal pneumonia is mostly attributable to the growth of S. pneumoniae in the lung and the attendant host inflammatory response, although specific factors that enhance this process (e.g., pneumolysin) may be responsible for some of the pathogenic potential of the pneumococcus. Disease that follows bacteremia and invasion of the meninges by meningitisproducing bacteria such as N. meningitidis, H. influenzae, E.

Transmission to New Hosts
As part of the pathogenic process, most microbes are shed from the host, often in a form infectious for susceptible individuals. However, the rate of transmissibility may not necessarily be high, even if the disease is severe in the infected individual, as transmissibility and virulence are not linked traits.

Flagella are long appendages attached at either one or both ends of the bacterial cell (polar flagella) or distributed over the entire cell surface (peritrichous flagella). Flagella, like pili, are composed of a polymerized or aggregated basic protein. In flagella, the protein subunits form a tight helical structure and vary serologically with the species. Spirochetes such as T. pallidum and Borrelia burgdorferi have axial filaments similar to flagella running down the long axis of the center of the cell, and they "swim" by rotation around these filaments.